Newcastle United or West Ham could bring Arsenal loanee Konstantinos Mavropanos back to the Premier League on a cut-price deal if Stuttgart are relegated from the Bundesliga, as reported by the Heidenheimer Zeitung.
On February 19th, Mavropanos gave away a 94th minute penalty as Stuttgart threw away two vital points at home to Bochum. On the same day, Hoffenheim came from behind to defeat Wolfsburg with a pair of late goals.
So as the clock ticked down at the Rhein-Neckar Arena on Friday night – with Stuttgart clinging onto a 1-0 lead – it was a twist you could see coming from a mile away.
From the 85th to the 90th minute, Hoffenheim’s Christoph Baumgartner scored twice.
The visitors, for the second weekend in a row, turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 win. Stuttgart, for the second weekend in a row, suffered heartbreak in the dying seconds.
Is Mavropanos returning to the Premier League?
If Pellegrino Matarazzo’s side are to keep their hopes of Bundesliga survival alive, they cannot afford for those bad old habits to creep in again when they host fellow strugglers Borussia Monchengladbach tomorrow.
Stuttgart are currently one place and five points off the bottom of the table.
And, should one of Germany’s biggest clubs suffer relegation for the third time in seven years, an exodus will follow. Sasa Kalajdzic, Borna Sosa and the speedy Silas already have Premier League suitors.
According to BILD, Mavropanos is a target for West Ham and Newcastle. So too a Borussia Dortmund side crying out for defensive reinforcements.
That last-gasp blunder against Bochum aside, Mavropanos has been one of Stuttgart’s finest performers, scoring five goals from centre-half.
The 2007 Bundesliga champions will trigger the £2.5 million buy-out clause in the Greek defender’s contract before selling him on for a profit. How much of a profit, however, depends on whether or not Stuttgart are still a top-flight side in 2022/23.
HZ believe that, if Stuttgart survive, Mavropanos will cost £22 million. If they tumble through the trapdoor, his price-tag will tumble with them, falling to £10 million.
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